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Amiga Hardware

Mini-ITX AmigaONE Board 335

Posted by timothy from the mini-itx-rocks dept.
bhtooefr writes "When I was checking Mini-ITX.com, I found this little gem, info on the AmigaONE Lite board that will be coming out. It's a Mini-ITX compliant motherboard, so you'll be able to throw an Amiga in a Cubid case. Pictures are here (first two - first is without CPU, second is with)."
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Mini-ITX AmigaONE Board More

Mini-ITX AmigaONE Board

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  • Who actually still uses amigas? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 22, 2003 @08:48PM (#7030209)
    Who actually still uses Amigas? Where are they popular?

  • wow. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fjordboy ( 169716 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @08:48PM (#7030210) Homepage
    That's totally small...I was looking at this picture [soft3.net], but it doesn't have anything else to compare it to. Anyone have a picture next to a penny or something to compare?

    • Re:wow. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Compare it to itself. There are PS/2 ports, 100mil spaced jumpers, 3.5mm audio jacks, etc etc.
      • eh...I guess, I just wanted something more common. Heck, I can't exactly visualize the size of a ps2 port unless there is something next to it. But that's a good thought, it does lend a different perspective now that I've looked at it again. Thanks.
        • How about the DIMM slot, that's a reasonable size to vizualize (at least for me; I've got like 10-12 of 'em on my desk).

          Or for a better idea, Mini-ITX boards are almost the same size as a std. CD jewel case.

    • Re:wow. (Score:5, Informative)

      by hattig ( 47930 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @08:53PM (#7030255) Journal
      17cm by 17cm

      The board is a beta design, not the final one. It'll be a few more months yet as they get all the functionality they want onto the board sensibly.

      AmigaOS4 is now booting on native PPC platforms now (well, the AmigaOne).
    • how about the pci slot? I'd imagine its a standard sized pci slot

    • Re:wow. (Score:5, Informative)

      by merlin_jim ( 302773 ) <James DOT McCrac ... ratapult DOT com> on Monday September 22, 2003 @09:04PM (#7030335)
      Well I don't have any pictures of this particular board for comparison... but all Mini-ITX boards are the exact same size (170mmx170mm) so here are some pics I found real quick of other Mini-ITX boards:

      Here's one with a CD next to it...
      http://mini-itx.com/reviews/b860t/images/B8 60T0001 .jpg

      Here's one with a coke can next to it (REALLY puts it into perspective):
      http://mini-itx.com/news/images/sto ry0026.jpg

      Here's one inside a humidor:
      http://mini-itx.com/projects/humidor64/i mages/humi dor0001.jpg

      And inside an NES:
      http://mini-itx.com/projects/nespc/images/ne s0009. jpg

      And inside a breadbox:
      http://mini-itx.com/projects/images/pro ject0020c.j pg

      And inside a PS2:
      http://mini-itx.com/projects/playstation2pc/ images /ps2pc0000.jpg

  • For the man who has everything (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Hadlock ( 143607 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @08:49PM (#7030218) Homepage Journal
    Including one of those four propeller helicopter things sitting on his desk as a toy but never uses, an equally usless gift that costs far too much and has been used a total of once, the mini-ITX Amiga board!

    now if you could just rig it so OS X would run on one of these babies...

  • Text in case it gets slashdotted... (Score:5, Informative)

    by OrangeHairMan ( 560161 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @08:50PM (#7030224)
    AmigaOne News:Alan Redhouse Comments on AmigaWorld about the A1-SE Lite

    Posted by Mikey_C on 20-Sep-2003 18:14:27 (2452 reads)

    Read Alan's full post

    TA magazine issue 15. To quote myself (because its easier than typing) :

    Quote:

    AmigaOne Lite - some more details.

    In the last edition of Total Amiga I gave a brief overview of the AmigaOne Lite - an entry level AmigaOne designed to both as a CD32/A1200 successor and for use in embedded systems such as kiosks, STB's etc. However the more observant of you will have realised that in the last issue I actually described the AmigaOne-SE Lite - so why the change of name?

    In the interim period we have re-examined the costs and decided that it is economically feasible to significantly increase the A1-Lite's specification and flexibility within the same overall target pricing. As one of these changes is to use the standard A1XE CPU modules (plus a new entry-level 750CXe module) we dropped the 'SE' from its name.

    The full specifications for the AmigaOne Lite are as follows:

    Micro ITX form factor (170mmx170mm)
    Gigabit and 10/100 ethernet on board
    133MHz UDMA RAID IDE controller
    USB 2.0 on board
    IEEE 1394 ('FireWire') on board
    2x AGP graphics on board with PAL/NTSC TV out
    AC97 sound on board
    1 x PCI33MHz slot (horizontal, via supplied riser card)
    Cardbus slot for flash card support (diskless booting, applications, games slot etc)
    Usual legacy PS/2, serial, parallel ports

    Being a standard form factor it will fit in a standard micro ITX case, such as the one shown in the enclosed photograph. Please visit the web link at http://www.morex.com.tw/minicase.htm and www.mini-itx.com to see other suitable case designs.

    We are aiming to bring the AmigaOne Lite to market early next year.

    Not mentioned in the above spec is that the board is now designed to take the standard A1XE megarray cpu module so that it can be supplied with/upgraded to anything from an entry level (=cheap) 750CXe@433 to (possibly) a 1.3GHz G4.

    The pictures published on the Soft3 website are of the first pre-prototype version - there will be 2 or 3 revisions before the actual production version is ready. The first step - this board - is basically to shrink the A1XE board to a mini-ITX formfactor and make sure it works properly. Then the other chipsets and connectors will be added and that series of boards use for developers to port OS & applications. It will also be used to demonstrate capability - and hopefully gain some significant orders - in the industrial markets that we and other dealers are targetting (display controllers, kiosks, etc).

    Finally we hope the final version (which will be as near as possible to the above spec) will be available for sale in the specialist shops (and ultimately in the high street electronic entertainment chains) - with OS4 and some Amiga applications - in 1Q04.

    The pre-production pictures were intended to be shown - at this stage - only to the A1 developers and to the A1-users list on AmigaWorld to try to get some useful feedback. Thats why there was really no explanation available to the world at largel when Soft3 (due to a misunderstanding) put them up on their own website.

    However, from what I can see the, open publication of these pictures, together with the screen shots of a beta of OS4 running on the A1 - has had a very positive reception. But, please, no private emails for more details on availability dates and prices - we're swamped with emails as it is. This stuff will be posted 'when its ready' (c).

    Hope this helps

    Alan
  • When I was setting up my LTSP-style arrangement at home, I shopped around a bit for clients. I already had an old Javastation Krups, but found it much to slow for heavy use.

    These thin clients are $599 to about $629, similar to the prices I found but I can't understand why companies make them so expensive. I decided to build my own using VIA mini-ITX boards for less than $300.

    It amazes me when companies fail to analyze why previous thin client computing initiatives haven't caught on, and put out thin clien

    • Re:ITX prices are becoming very attractive (Score:4, Insightful)

      by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @10:17PM (#7030778) Journal
      Honestly, I think it's because the manufacturers realize there's a lot of profit to be milked from thin client sales. They're not really interested in getting in big price wars with them - because despite the advertising talk about how inexpensive they're supposed to be, they know they've got a niche market that will keep paying the higher prices. Discounting the thin clients isn't likely to increase that market very much.

      I worked with the Netier thin clients for a while (now bought out by Wyse Corp.), and they provide centralized management software for them that helps get users "locked in" to buying more and more of their thin clients. Why? Well, you have to go to considerable effort to build update packages that their software can push out to the clients, so software in their flash memory can be modified. If you spent a whole day building a package to, say, update the Citrix ICA client on your thin clients, you're not going to be too happy if it only gets used to update 15 or 20 systems. You'd rather have it do all 200, 300, or even 1000 systems in your company, right? So right there, Wyse knows you'll be back for more thin clients - whether they cost $600 each, or $150 each.

      The majority of people I've seen using a freeware solution like LTSP are on tight budgets to begin with, so they're generally using it as a way to recycle old, existing computers - as opposed to shopping for bargains on new thin clients.
    • ITX, all the disadvantages of a PC combined with all the disadvantages of a thin client.
      • Not really, The VIA edens fill an important niche in computing...they run with low enough power and x86 compatible to use regular off-the-shelf auto/boat/hobbie batteries as power supplies for a USEABLE amount of time. P4s are nice, but 100W power usage will suck any batteries dry in minutes..not very useable. Also, the size lets you put a PC anywhere you want. Add linux to the mix and you can get a tiny, purpose-built "black Box" for cheap!

  • Finally..... (Score:3, Funny)

    by moodswung ( 682939 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @08:58PM (#7030289)
    Lemmings, the way it was meant to be played!

  • A new mandate? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Obiwan Kenobi ( 32807 ) * <evanNO@SPAMmisterorange.com> on Monday September 22, 2003 @09:00PM (#7030309) Homepage
    I think the next time someone links a pictures page, a paypal donate link should go right beside it, in order to pay for their melted server.

    Those poor hardware sites just get pounded :)

  • again? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Lxy ( 80823 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @09:01PM (#7030313) Journal
    First I'm told my C64 can be be modded for broadband.

    Then an Amiga runs at 900Mhz. /me dusts off his Apple ][

    • Re:again? (Score:2, Insightful)

      by downix ( 84795 )
      Not quite. There is nothing "Amiga" about this board other than the name. But, for an embedded Linux box, it seems decent. But, I would sooner go for the Pegasos 2 and pay a fraction of the cost.

      • Re:again? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by vandan ( 151516 )
        How about the fact that it runs the Amiga OS 4 and is compatible with old Amiga software? That must count for something...
        • [...] is compatible with old Amiga software?
          Um, if it's really going to be compatible with "old Amiga software", it better do The Right Thing when said software pokes $DFF180 and peeks $BFE001. Which I somehow doubt, I didn't see any register-level emulation of the original Amiga hardware listed in the specs... It'd be cool, though! :)

          • Re:again? (Score:2, Informative)

            by k8to ( 9046 )
            You can attach your old amiga motherboard to supply this level of compatability if desired, while not sacrificing the PPC speed of running OS4.
    • Seemed a bit like overkill for playing Frogger, though I suppose if you want a networked MMORPG version of it where you're trying to frag everybody else's frogs before they cross the road, I guess it'll help...

  • An Amiga with a Radeon and VIA chips? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 22, 2003 @09:01PM (#7030314)
    Denise and Agnus are spinning in their silicon landfills.
    • Exactly, a PPC based board filled with off the shelf parts? why not just buy a Mac and replace the OS with something else.

      Always been an Amiga fan, but they have nothing to offer over anyone else these days.

  • "This little gem"? (Score:5, Funny)

    by psyconaut ( 228947 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @09:02PM (#7030319)
    No, GEM was on the Atari ST ;-)

    -psy
    • So? Everybody knows Atari sux! Amiga kicks ass! =]
      • Atari had a better logo. I was wearing a t-shirt with it on as I typed that ;-)

        -psy

        • Re:"This little gem"? (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Lispy ( 136512 ) on Tuesday September 23, 2003 @05:51AM (#7032373) Homepage
          The world as it used to be:
          Musician: "Atari rocks!"
          Gamer: "Amiga rocks!"
          Designer: "Apple rocks!"
          Accountant: "PCs are the future!"
          All others together: ROFL

          *Sigh*
          Back in 1992 I had a megaST [old-computers.com]with a 40MByte Harddrive and two screens, color and b/w. That machine looked really cool, even better than the apples from back then.

          While were at it: What really rocked my world was the Atari Portfolio [old-computers.com]. I could never afford one so I got one on ebay a few months ago. Its serves as a really neat terminal for configuring firewalls and stuff via a serial conn.
    • gem was on the pc too(if by gem you mean the graphcical ui/windowing system thingy). first computer experience i ever had was on it(with the paint).

      ok.. little off topic. i never had an amiga as a kid and of course we had pretty petty flame wars at school which was better(in the end, pc did prevail after few years but then i wasn't so glad about that it did since i'd grown to be a little more geeky by then)

      anyways.. one of these boards would be a really cool thing to play around with.
  • Sounds delicious! Whats to stop me from just slapping a G4 on this baby and having a nice 1.4ghz G4 Linux box with Radeon video in a cubid? Why the hell would I want to run AmigaOS on something that is obviously a god sent Linux desktop?

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @09:20PM (#7030431)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • The deal is that Amiga WAS superior... years ago. Some people just never got over the fact that Amiga never really made it.

      I'm in the same boat as you, I honestly have no idea why people still use them as their main computers. Having one for nostalgia, sure, but as a main PC? What's the attraction over Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, or Apple??
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • We need people doing different things; otherwise, we risk accepting the fact that the computers of today are the best we can build.

          I am not sure that's true though I am sure the AmigaONE is the right path either. Comparing the two will be interesting however.

          BTW I learned assembler on the 6502 (atari / apple). Then got a chance to work with the 6809. Man, what a sweet chip to work with. Too bad the better computers got the brain dead cpu's huh?

      • Re:What is it with you Mac fanatics? (Score:4, Funny)

        by benzapp ( 464105 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @10:29PM (#7030849)
        Quite a few places still use it for television production. I just saw one of the public access channels in NYC get stuck at the AmigaDOS prompt for a whole afternoon.

    • Hey, the Amiga might suck, but it does it with style!

      BTW, 6809? Oops, what a giveaway. Dragon?

    • I really, really, miss my A500+, with 6Mb of RAM and a 45Mb SCSI HD. :-(

      You're not the only one... you're not the only one...

      I run Linux now, but I swear I'd switch back to AMIGA Workbench in a SECOND if I could.

    • Re:What is it with you Mac fanatics? (Score:5, Informative)

      by master_p ( 608214 ) on Tuesday September 23, 2003 @03:40AM (#7031996)
      Right now Amiga is a dead horse. It just does not stand a chance, even against a lowly 486/66. But you should compare computers with similar price at the time that were available. In 1991, I could play 2D games with 768 colors and 40 levels of parallax scrolling at 60 frames per second on my Amiga, with 4 channels of 22KHz hardware-driven sound. I couldn't do the same with a 1991 PC 286.

      The PC got the edge over the Amiga because of the Amiga's graphics architecture, which was heavily geared towards 2d blitting: it used bit planes, where the PC had packed format. The use of packed pixels made 3d much easier, and the lack of 3d killed the Amiga.

      The Amiga had many advantages:

      -a nice Unix like O/S where everything could be done from the command line

      -each executable had its own 'registry': a text file with '.info' extension; applications could be copied by dragging their directory around

      -nice multitasking; very light

      -Arrex, an advanced scripting language that could do gui as well as command line apps

      -a nice library system; and O/S file organization

      -an Ultra light gui, that could be easily customizable

      -each app could be in its own screen, with its own video mode. Drag and drop from one screen to another worked

      -many custom chips, especially for blitting. The Amiga 1200 could do many graphical tricks, and its blit speed was close to a Pentium's.

      Commodore did many mistakes and really killed the Amiga. Back in 1991, Amiga needed hard disk support, cd rom, and a custom chip that could do 3D.

      I really miss the Amiga, as well as those halcyon days of back-bedroom coding. It just don't feel the same with a PC: although the PC is vastly more powerful, it's nowhere near as beautiful(as a concept, as a design, as a promise!!!).

      • > -Arrex, an advanced scripting language that could do gui as well as command line apps

        I have to nitpick because the Amiga is one of the few places I can actually do that. It's ARexx, and it kicked ass. It was the first language I ever learned, and I used to write BBS games in it.

    • Cygnus Ed! That brings back some memories..

      I want Cygnus Ed for Linux! It was so slick..

      • Re:What is it with you Mac fanatics? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by vidarh ( 309115 ) <vidar@hokstad.com> on Tuesday September 23, 2003 @05:31AM (#7032316) Homepage Journal
        I agree about Cygnus Ed - I still haven't found any editor I'm even remotely as comfortable with as that. Jed is the closest I've gotten to something usable.

        And Arexx. The language is a nightmare, but having almost every app scriptable with a common scripting language, letting you "remote control" one app from any other was heaven.

        And Screens. Even thought splitting the screen with multiple resolutions isn't really doable on modern hardware, it would still be nice (though I think some version of Enlightenment supported it for X).

        And placing the application menubar at the top of the screen - frees up so much screen real estate.

        Deluxe Paint, or a similar quality SIMPLE paint program (sorry, Gimp just doesn't cut it - not even remotely - Photogenics sort of works on X, but it's bug ridden)

        Datatypes!

        Assigns, though that is FINALLY making an appearance of sorts in X based desktops with multi rooted virtual filesystem support.

        A quick, responsive GUI - my 2GHz x86 based PC with a GeForce, and 512MB RAM is still less responsive most of the time than my Amiga 500 was...

        AsmOne, now that actually made assembly programming pleasurable (of course 68k assembly was a dream compared to the horrible hack that is x86)

        And DiskMaster II or DOpus...

        And Workbench. It's embarrassing that file managers under X either are slower, or is a nightmare to work with compared to a basic file management interface that's didn't change fundamentally after '86.

        Damn, I want my Amigas again now... Maybe it's time to give Aros a spin :)

    • "Amiga addicts, flame me if you'd like, but I'd rather hear some intelligent reasons why anyone would choose to use an Amiga over other faster, cheaper, more stable systems."

      The Amiga (A500) ran at 7Mhz, but it was blistering fast compared with 386DX40 of the time simply because of the wide pathways between the relevant custom chips. PCs didn't really get this until AGP & Northbridge/Southbridge separation (correct me if I'm talking codshite).

      All in all, it was better at handling graphics than a PC

  • Future of Amiga? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I wonder what the future of AmigaOS4 actually is. Amiga Inc. does not appear to be in particularly good shape at the moment. If you're interested, go ahead and read this [merlancia.us].

    Some choice quotes:

    During the deposition of Mr. McEwen, he admitted Amiga was insolvent. It currently has outstanding debt of 2.2 million dollars

    McEwen has testified that Amiga's bank account balance is currently "about a hundred dollars"

    There's a lot more detail in the file, but given the history of the company in general, and what

  • Amiga releases? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Chromal ( 56550 )
    Yawn. You can sell a new product, you can call it Amiga, but if there's no continuity, it seems like a misnomer. Yeah, I can release a new computer and name it after an old discontinued line, but why? Anyone got dibs on the Apple IVne (Nostalgia Exploiter)?

    • Re:Amiga releases? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by geordie ( 258181 ) on Monday September 22, 2003 @11:51PM (#7031242) Homepage
      Just like you can sell a G5 based machine running OSX and call it a Mac, or a Pentium 4 / AMD XP based system running Windows XP and call it a PC.
      The Amiga just skipped the inbetween stages.

      Sure it doesn't have chips named Agnus, Paula and Denise and it doesn't come with a Zorro slot. But then again, how many Mac's come with a Nubus slot and are powered by a 68000? and how many PC's still have ISA and a socket for a 8087?

      Who's to say that if the Amiga's development hadn't followed a more 'normal' path, that what we would have seen today with is anything different from the Amiga One?
      • OTOH, the Apple Mac is called an Apple PowerMac G5 because Apple designed it, built it and decided to sell it as their product "PowerMac G5". Apple has control over all stages of the making of their own hardware, as well as control over the future of that hardware.

        Luckily, there are not and will not be any new Amigas. There is (or will be) a new AmigaOS, and AmigaOS 4 and beyond will run on third party hardware, like this mini-ITX Teron motherboard.

        Nobody develops hardware with AmigaOS in mind. The compan
  • Anyone looking for a loaded Amiga 2000 to run their imaginary copy of AmigaOS 4.0 on?

    (duck)
  • Have a look around on the amigaworld.net website.

    The screenshots of OS4 are looking pretty damned sweet. And with a G4 under the bonnet, it would move along quite nicely. I wonder if OS4 is being ported to the G5?

    Very cool, and quite reasonable price.
  • Not to sound like the BSD troll but sesh.

    Its been dead for a long long time. Not dying for 15 or 5 years like Apple or BSD like trolls or the pro MS crowd but I mean it makes OS/2 look lively in comparison. Its actually dead! Name one commercial AMiga app still on the market? One?

    How many people will buy this? 5! I am dead serious too.

    Let it die already.

  • I am always amazed at how they try to make computers with small form factors, yet still include hopelessly useless ports that possibly one in 2000 people use. Can we please get another USB or Firewire port instead?
  • You go Lorraine!!!!!

    Round those other girls up, Paula, Fat Agnus, you know the whole gang and lets show the computer world who the best girl in town is :)

  • AmigaOne-XE ATX review (Score:3, Informative)

    by Mike Bouma ( 85252 ) on Tuesday September 23, 2003 @12:18AM (#7031348) Homepage
    AmigaOne-XE boards have now been available in volumes for some time now. Miffy has reviewed a pre-built system in combination with Linux here [amigaworld.net]. Also here [telus.net]'s another article about building a system yourself.

    The last couple of months AmigaOS4 has been demonstrated at special 'AmigaOS4 Tour events' around the world on classic systems equiped with PPC boards. At various events in Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Austria, US Westcoast (Sacramento), US Eastcoast (New York), Sweden, Italy, France, Denmark, etc. The Tour will also go DonwUnder [amigaos4downunder.org].

    Personally I have been to Switzerland to report on one of these events. You can read it here:
    Swiss 'AmigaOS4 on Tour' presentation in Basel (29-Jul-2003) [amigaworld.net]

    At the Italian Pianeta 2003 fair AmigaOS4 was demonstrated [amigaworld.net] on AmigaOne hardware for the first time! More screenshots of AmigaOS4 can be found here [amigaworld.net] at the AmigaWorld.net community portal.

    Hyperion will also be present at the upcoming Benelux Amiga Show [beneluxamigashow.com] which is planned for the 4th and 4th of October in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. I plan to be there as well. :-)

  • Can someone explain why this is exciting? It looks like hardware that run's linux from the pictures. Isn't the whole idea of the Amiga to run Amiga software on Amiga hardware so that it is better at the tasks it's designed for? This could be a pc motherboard and processor for all you'd care.. It'd still run linux and kde just fine.
  • When Microso.. er I mean SCO are charging you $599 for every copy of Linux you run, the Linux will have an open OS they can migrate to..

  • Yeah, so you can put it in a Cubid case...if you don't mind the undervoltage and lack of grounding. I have a Cubid 2699R which used to house a VIA ME-6000 mobo, but that system wasn't stable so I got a case that actually works and the Cubid lies empty in a drawer. The same components have been completely stable in their new home during the months since I ditched the Cubid POS.

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